Before any negative campaign ads hit the air waves in the race to be Nashville’s next mayor, candidates took small stabs at each other last night on live television.
A forum hosted by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and WSMV Channel 4 allowed the mayoral hopefuls to ask each other questions.
The five seemed to gang up on the race’s front-runner in early polls, former Congressman Bob Clement. His opponents questioned his voting record on the environment, the federal budget and immigration reform. Clement defended his record.
“I voted on thousands of bills and amendments to amendments to amendments, but my record is very clear, I am for legal immigration. I am not for illegal immigration. I am for securing our borders.”
Former Metro Law Director Karl Dean also took criticism from vice mayor Howard Gentry who asked why Dean’s children don’t attend Metro public schools. Dean answered this way…
“The decision to attend private schools is a decision my wife and I made in the best interest of our child and what we thought they needed, each individual child. I think for education, the issue really is your commitment to public education, which I have. I’m a product of public education myself.”
Councilman David Briley was critical of Buck Dozier’s lofty proposal to add funding to Metro Schools through a one-billion dollar endowment. Instead, Briley asked Dozier to commit to building a 50-million dollar endowment for Fisk University who has had financial troubles over the past decade.
Race outsider Kenneth Eaton was not invited to participate in the forum because he holds less than 5-percent of the vote in recent polls.
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